Rock Island daily Argus., 1887-10-22
DRIVING A FINE ART.
AN EXPERT DiScOURSES ON THE
NlCETlES OF RIBBON HANDLING.
Good, Bad and Indifferent Drivers-The
Hanson Terror Coming Into Fashion.
q Four-ln- Hand.

Good, Bad and Indifferent Drivers-The
Hanson Terror Coming Into Fashion.
Different Styles of Driving-Managing
Four-in-Hand.
"Ah, driving isn't as easy as it looks, the
"horsey man" began "There are too many
| downright idiots trusted with reins and
whips, and it's wonder there are not more
accidents than there are. Some of them don't
realize the danger and more of them don't
care. Half grown boys are always most to
| be dreaded sitting behind horses, and espe-
cially IN crowded streets. for there they can
| do power of mischief to other people. On
| country roads they can rarely hurt any one
| but themselves. don't mean fast driving,
| because it isn't often such fools are trusted
| with speedy cattle Yet man may he run
| over and hurt or killed by slow animal just
as well as by fast trotter. The driving
| mean is what | call sloppy driving, where
| the reins hang half loose over the dashboard.
| and the animal is never under control until
| after an accident has happened. Then, again,
some of the fools Pm speaking about drive
| with such tight rein that they stop the
| circulation round the horses mouth, and they
might as well try to pull up a cyclone as at
TEMPT to check even a slow beast in that state
when he's frightened and starts to run away.
Women don't, as a rule, drive well, although
some of them do They're too fidgety, shak
| ing the reins and slashing with the whip.
They're worse than flies, some of them, to a
nervous horse, and nearly all of them want
too much continuous work out of an animal.
| SPEAKING OF BAD DRIVERS.
at stands to reason, doesn't it, that horse
can't go at top speed all the timei know q
man can't do it, and don't see why horse
!: should be expected to do an impossibility.
But You can't persuade some ladies of that
they keep on fiieking the animal with the
whip and nagging at him with the reins fol
all the world as if he were a contrary hus
band.n
''You speak of bad drivers. How can thai
he remediedYn
"It can only be done with the drivers O
= public conveyances and licensed drivers gen
orally You don't trust steam boiler or
locomotive to man until he knows how T.
handle it, do youl OF course not, Then VIII.
should YOU trust him with horse that's Oftel
just as dangerous any high pressure boile
{. that ever was built? Why should q man tina
wants to earn his living by driving horses no
. he called upon to prove that he can do iti
Look at those cab drivers we've got
. Why, some of them don't know and don
care where or how they 60. They cut in be
+ hind vehicles and pop out upon people, eithe
| frightening them to death or driving owe
them Then there are those fellows VIII
= drive two and three horse wagons Loo
, how some of them turn corners As q rule
l lrt.
/ more careful, because of the weight benin
them and the room they need to make
curve, hut these light cart chaps are mostl
l as bad as they make them, and cab driver,
1 when THEY'RE careless, are worse than any
1 Hamsons are coming into fashion now in th
4 CITY, and if they're not looked after they
he Il regular terror to pedestrians, althoug
I they've got an easy job because they sit quit
: behind the whole of the thing they driv,
The worst of them is, that they look one wa
and drive another, unless they've got faI
\ inside, and then they go if the devil We
behind them, which he ought to be, with
good chance of catching up with them."
STYLE" IN DRIVING.
What do you think about style in dri'
y mgr
h there is in walking or doing anything els
ne A regular coachman's driving is not at a
u like sweTs handling the ribbons. If
is gentleman has pair or a single before hi
il, he rarely moves his left hand away from
IN front of him at the height somewhere abol
the fourth button of his waistcoat, with Il
whip laid across his hand under his thum
4 using the first two fingers of his right har
only upon the reins. And he mustn't do tn
stiffiy, but as easy as If he were holding
! cambria handkerchief or a lady's fan.
course I'm speaking of man who sits abo'
his animal There can he only one way
4 driving buggy, and every man of al
I. sense knows how to do that, if he can dri
u; 5ie at ALL"
"a 'How about four-in-h -handr
81 think that very few gentlemen ev
. learn to do that properly. II is regul
I- coachmans business at the best aud must
y done in coachman's style You see, ther
such n bunch of ribbons in a fourth ha
put that mans mind is pretty well occupit
.r- and be must put it into the work, just lea
er ing enough to spare to manage the VIII
@ @fnn That's a study in itself How very few IN
D. can flick fly off leaders ear and by t
ct same motion of the wrist make the lash wi
itself round the stick in graceful rings, III
. the main part of the lash is the only Lar
a, loop left hanging, as the part near the e
IA comes up under his right thumb. I've kno'
men to practice that trick for weeks off |
re the coach and when they tried il on the r
/ thing get the whole affair into such q su
!" that it looked like Chinese puzzle IN
York Star.